With efforts led by concerned international Syracuse University students, the Center for International Services has launched “A Hand for Wuhan,” a fundraising project that will provide medical supplies to aid the city of Wuhan in China’s Hubei province. Wuhan is the epicenter of an outbreak of coronavirus, a respiratory illness related to a family of viruses that include SARS and some forms of the common cold.
Coronavirus is spread through person-to-person contact, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The CDC recommends health care professionals wear personal protective equipment (PPE), including gloves, masks and gowns if they come within six feet of a coronavirus case. PPE must be replaced between patients. “Medical supplies are expensive and scarce,” says mechanical engineering major Ruohan Xu ’23, one of the students helping organize this effort.
The fundraiser will support the purchase of N95 masks, latex gloves, protective goggles and gowns. “The fundraiser at Syracuse University will purchase all medical supplies and send them directly to designated hospitals through Apex, a company that works with the Hubei government,” Xu says.
The supplies will be shipped to Tongji Hospital in Wuhan at no cost to the hospital. “Wuhan Tongji Hospital is one of the two major hospitals in Wuhan receiving the largest number of patients, and the situation is more serious than others,” Xu says.
According to the CDC, cases of coronavirus have been reported in Asia, Australia, Europe and North America.
Syracuse University students from different parts of China—including Shanghai, Beijing, Hunan, Guangzhou and Qingdao—have come together to address this health crisis. They expressed their concerns about the situation in Wuhan to faculty members in the College of Engineering and Computer Science, who connected them with Amanda Nicholson, interim deputy senior vice president for the Division of Enrollment and the Student Experience, and Juan Tavares, director of the Center for International Services. Chancellor Kent Syverud and his wife Dr. Ruth Chen, who is a professor in the College of Engineering and Computer Science, also assisted.
Community members interested in donating funds to assist Wuhan-area hospitals may visit the Center for International Services website.
